Our Italian avant-gardist Luca Collivasone is back with his "Cacophonator," a homemade instrument Luca built himself from a sewing machine with various strange attachments. 'Screen Music' is a collection in four volumes (Vol. 1 only reviewed here) each different from the other, the sound material composed expressly made for cinema, theater and video game entertainment. This first volume is 8 tracks clocking in at about 31 minutes. Although there is a strong rhythmic component throughout, these pieces sound quite different from one another. The cacophonator is a very varied instrument producing an incredible variety of sounds. Often sounding like a synthesizer, this is no collection of random sounds and effects, but carefully constructed pieces that express certain moods, scenes, and concepts. Tracks carry abstract sonics while being grounded in a certain form. One of the more fascinating techniques is used on "Crash," with a repetitious arpeggiated sample & hold loop (likely LFO-driven) while the percussion around it does a kind of Rice Krispies snap~crackle~n' pop dance. Some of this sounds like the classical experimental electronic albums that often surfaced in the '60s (usually featuring the Buchla, or other modular synthesizer) but more playful and less serious. I would say that 'Screen Music Vol. 1' is a fairly listener-friendly album for experimental music enthusiasts, although a less outre audience might find some of this interesting and enjoyable too.

Just for the heck of it I checked out Luca's other Screen Music volumes on the Furry Heart site. There really is no similarity between them. You may enjoy one track more than another but none of these are easy to pin down. For me, I like Vol. 1 the best and Vol. 3 the least, but they're all good in their own way. (Volume 4 has some pretty interesting tracks on it though.) To my knowledge, 'Screen Music Vol. 1' is the only release in the series that comes in a physical (CD) format; the rest are digital download only at this point. If you're looking for some quality experimental electronica that isn't off-putting, 'Screen Music Vol. 1' is your ticket to aural ecstasy.